User:Reillysolis/sandbox

I am a sophomore at Rice University studying mathematical economic analysis and cognitive sciences. My contributions are for my SOCI 280 class, Poverty, Justice and Human Capabilities.

CLMV countries
The four newest members of ASEAN: Vietnam (joined 28 July 1995), Laos (23 July 1997), Myanmar (23 July 1997), and Cambodia (30 April 1999).

Development gap
When Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, and Cambodia joined ASEAN in the late 1990s, concerns were raised about a certain developmental divide regarding a gap in average per capita GDP between older and the newer members. In response, the Initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAI) was formed by ASEAN as a regional integration policy with the principle goal of bridging this developmental divide, which, in addition to disparities in per capita GDP, is manifested by disparities in dimensions of human development such as life expectancy and literacy rates. Other than the IAI, other programs for the development of the Mekong Basin - where all four newer ASEAN members are located - that tend to focus on infrastructure development have been effectively enacted. In general, ASEAN does not have the financial resources to extend substantial grants or loans to the new members. Therefore, it usually leaves the financing of these infrastructure projects to international financial institutions and to developed countries. Nevertheless, it has mobilized funding from these institutions and countries and from the ASEAN-6 (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Brunei Darussalam, Singapore, and Thailand) themselves for areas where the development gap needs to be filled through the IAI program. Other programs intended for the development of the ASEAN-4 take advantage of the geographical proximity of the CLMV countries and tend to focus on infrastructure development in areas like transport, tourism, and power transmission.

Education and Human Development
As the "collective entity to enhance regional cooperation in education", the ASEAN Education Ministers have determined four priorities that ASEAN efforts toward improved education would address: (1) Promoting ASEAN awareness among ASEAN citizens, particularly youth; (2) Strengthening ASEAN identity through education; (3) Building ASEAN human resources in the field of education; and (4) Strengthening ASEAN university networking. Various programs and projects have been and are currently in the process of being developed to fulfill these directives.

The ASEAN Education Ministers Meeting, which meets annually, oversees ASEAN cooperation efforts on education at the ministerial level. With regard to implementation, such programs and activities resulting from such efforts are for the most part carried out by the ASEAN Senior Officials on Education (SOM-ED), which reports to the ASEAN Education Ministers Meeting. SOM-ED also manages cooperation on higher education through the ASEAN University Network (AUN). The AUN was established to assist ASEAN in (1) promoting cooperation among ASEAN scholars, academics, and scientists in the region; (2) developing academic and professional human resources in the region; (3) promoting information dissemination among the ASEAN academic community; and (4) enhancing the awareness of regional identity and the sense of "ASEAN-ness" among members.

Education indicators outlined hereafter belong to primary, secondary, and tertiary levels. Primary education is "the level of education where children are provided with basic reading, writing, and mathematical skills together with elementary understanding of such subjects as history, geography, natural science, social science, art, and music." Secondary education "continues to build up on the knowledge provided by primary education and aims at laying the foundations for lifelong learning and human development." Tertiary education, whether or not leading to an advanced research qualification, "requires minimally the successful completion of secondary education for admission."

School enrollment and participation
Participation in formal education is usually measured by the metric Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) and Net Enrollment Ratio (NER). The NER demonstrates the extent of participation in a a given age-specific level of education. The purpose of the GER is to show the total enrollment in a level of education regardless of age. The GER is expressed as a percentage of the official school-age population corresponding to the same level of education.

Primary education
We can make a few observations based on reported data on primary education enrollment. Brunei Darussalam had almost reached 100% net enrollment by 2001, while Indonesia has slowly moved downward from close to that enrollment percentage thereafter. The Philippines has been inching closer and closer to this target in recent years. Additionally "the data indicate two groups of countries - one which has consistently attained a net enrolment ratio of more than 90% (Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Singapore) and the other group with around 80% (Cambodia, Lao PDR and Myanmar). Viet Nam started in the lower group and moved over to the higher group in the second half of the reporting period. Thailand has not provided data for both sexes, but the separate net enrolment ratio for girls and boys indicates that the overall ratio would be between 86% and 87%, and as such would be closer to the higher group. The primary net enrollment ratios of boys were almost always higher than those of girls for all reporting countries except Malaysia. For Singapore throughout the reporting period, and Indonesia since 1998, the net enrollment ratios for girls and boys, however, were not significantly different. A marked widening of gender gap is noticeable in the Philippines in 1997 but in 1999 the net enrollment ratios for girls exceeded that for boys."

It is also useful to look at retainment and efficiency rates in education throughout ASEAN. "The effectiveness of efforts to extend literacy depends on the ability of the education system to ensure full participation of school-age children and their successful progression to reach at least grade 5, which is the stage when they are believed to have firmly acquired literacy and numeracy. The usual indicator to measure the level of such achievement is the proportion of pupils starting grade 1 reaching grade 5 of primary education."

Most reporting countries in ASEAN have steadily improved retention rates of pupils through 5th grade. At the top are Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand, which have shown consistant survival rates of close to 100%, indicating a very high retention of children in school through at least 5th grade. "Among the rest of the countries with rates ranging from 57% to 89% towards the end of the reporting period, Myanmar has maintained the largest improvements over the years."

Secondary education
By 2001, Brunei Darussalam, Myanmar, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines had achieved improvements in net enrollment ratios for secondary education of 11%-19% over those of 1990 or 1991. Vietnam experienced the fastest growth rate in net enrollment between the years 1993 and 1998. Singapore, the country with the highest overall achievement, has maintained consistently high net enrollment rates of above 90% since 1994. With regard to gender differences, the difference in the ratios of females to males ranges from 0.2%-6% (for the six countries for which these ratios are available: Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand,and Vietnam). "The overall pattern is that girls seem to exhibit appreciably higher net enrolment ratios for secondary education, except in the case of Singapore where the ratios for girls and boys converged in the second half of the reporting period."

Tertiary education
While the HPAEs (High Performing Asian Economies) and ASEAN-6 (the 6 oldest ASEAN members) have invested heavily in public education, and, unlike many other developing nations, have concentrated on primary and secondary schooling, tertiary education has been left largely to the private sector. Tertiary education in Southeast Asia is, in general, relatively weak. "In most cases universities are focused on teaching and service to government rather than academic research. Additionally, universities in Southeast Asia, both in terms of academic salaries and the research infrastructure (libraries, laboratories) is ﬁnancially handicapped and poorly supported. Regional academic journals cater to their 'home' informed audiences and respond less to international standards which makes universal or regional benchmarking difﬁcult."

Financial resources
To measure the investments in education by governments, we use the metrics of public current expenditure on primary education as a percent of GDP and expenditure per pupil as a percent of GDP. These two indicators are based on public current expenditure at all government levels on all public primary schools and subsidies to private educational institutions, teachers and pupils. In some instances regarding figures used in these calculations, data on current public expenditure on education may refer only to the Ministry of Education, excluding other ministries that spend a part of their budget on educational activities.

Primary education expenditure in the reporting ASEAN countries is usually lower than 3% of GDP, with the exception of Indonesia, which reported 5%. Two countries that show noticeable rising trends are the Philippines and Lao PDR. Malaysia has experienced a gradual downward trend throughout the 1990s but stabilized around the year 2000. Indonesia experienced a sharp decline in primary education expenditure as a percent of GDP between 1995 and 1999 from almost 10% to 5%. Singapore has maintained a stable 0.6% up until 2000 and increased slightly to 0.7% in 2001.

"While the public current expenditure on primary education as percentage of GDP can never be close to 100%, it is theoretically possible to have the public current expenditure per pupil as percentage of GDP per capita to reach or exceed 100%. However, in four countries for which the latter indicator is available, it does not exceed 15%. Except for Singapore, the indicator fluctuates somewhat, but seems to have stabilized at around 10% for two reporting countries at the end of the decade. Since 1996, the indicator has steadily risen in the Philippines reaching almost 14% by 1998. Upward or downward trend for this indicator can have many causes which include sharp changes in enrolment rates of government expenditures on primary education."

Scholarship
(from original article)

Education as a determinant of human development
Statistically, educational attainment (as measured by average years of schooling) strongly correlates with subsequent income levels and development capabilities. An improvement in educational attainment will have a positive effect on a country's income and human development (humanity) growth.

It is therefore evident that "universal access to, and completion of, primary or basic education is a self-evident goal upon which the foundations for building the human capacity rests. Increased participation, regardless of sex, in secondary and tertiary levels of education is a necessary step to be able to move forward in the process of achieving equity, capacity building, access to information, and strengthening science."

Literacy rates
Literacy indicators provide us with a measure of the number of literate persons within the population who are "capable of using written words in daily and to continue to learn." The literacy rate essentially reflects the cumulative accomplishment of education in spreading literacy. The literacy rate is usually linked to school enrollment ratios and school retainment rates (through at least grade 5) of primary education, both of which contribute to the literate population.

The data of literacy rates in reporting countries of 15 to 24 years old reflect outcomes of the basic education process and is therefore considered an accepted measure of the effectiveness of that country's education system's investment in children. Among the eight ASEAN countries reporting six have made significant progress towards 100% literacy by 2000. This progress is comprable with member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), an impressive accomplishment. Overall, there is not much disparity between male and female literacy with the exceptions of Cambodia and Lao PDR, where the literacy rate for females is about 10% lower than that of males in 1999. The results of overall improvement in literacy rates, though, indicate positive effectiveness of the primary education systems of these countries throughout the 1990s.

Looking at adult (defined as the entire population 15 and older) literacy rates, we can see that most reporting countries have made significant progress in this demographic as well. All but two reporting countries reached adult literacy rates of around 90% or better, with the exception of Cambodia and possibly Indonesia. Looking at the differences in literacy rates by sex, we can see a visible gender gap. "Out of nine countries reporting adult literacy rates, data by sex were available for seven. For the reporting countries, though females and males share the same pattern of trends in literacy, female literacy is consistently lower than that of males except in the Philippines where the rates are practically identical. The gap is largest in Cambodia with a difference of around 20 percentage points throughout, while Myanmar seems to have closed a previously existing gender gap by 1999."

Reillysolis (talk) 14:04, 24 October 2012 (UTC)